But as satellite communications enthusiast Paul Marsh explained at the London Security B-Sides event in April, there are reasons to doubt the reports. He spoke about a similar story, reported in the late 1990s, about hackers supposedly accessing UK military satellite communications network SkyNet and ‘nudging’ one satellite out of synch.

Whether Chinese hackers have that capability now is just one more matter of speculation to add to the opaque field of cyber warfare.